Having fulfilled, at the age nearly of seventy-two, a most painful and perilous duty, M. de Malesherbes returned, his mind rent with anguish, to his rural habitation. But he could not long escape the proscription pronounced against every one that was virtuous. atrocious persecutors were even desirous that the death of the best of men should be the most cruel and the most afflicting. Arrested at the same moment with his daughter, his son-in-law, and their children, imprisoned with them; the refined barbarity of the jailors compelled him to witness the execution of those for whom he would a thousand times have sacrificed life. After having paid > to nature the tribute of sensibility-after having bestowed upon his children the consolation so necessary in those difficult moments, he still gave them an example of composure, and the fortitude of a good man struggling against misfortune. On his charge of accusation being tendered to him he read it coolly, and folding it up, said, "They ought, at least, to have made it more probable;" and no longer occupied himself with it. He was immediately condemned; and his hands tied, he marched towards his grave. At the moment he passed the threshold of his prison, his foot struck against a stone. "This," said he, smiling, "is an unlucky omen. A Roman, in my situation, would have gone back." Every thing was heroic in this illustrious family. Memory will long cherish the sublime and affecting words addressed by Madame de Rosambo, his daughter, to Mademoiselle de Sombreuil. "You have had the happiness of saving the life of your father; I shall, at least, enjoy the consolation of dying with mine." M. de Malesherbes perished on the 23d of April, 1793.

PLINY THE ELDER.

CAIUS PLINIUS SECUNDUS was born at Verona, under the reign of Tiberius. In his youth he bore arms with considerable reputation; after which he was admitted to the college of Augurs. He discharged, with extreme fidelity, the duties of other posts to which he was appointed, without neglecting the friendship or intercourse with the princes under whom he lived. Vespasian appointed him governor of Spain, where he conducted himself with strict integrity, devoting the day to public affairs, and the night to study. His mind was stored with various knowledge, and he was an inquisitive observer of the works of nature. To this spirit of curiosity he sacrificed his life. Lying at Misenum, with a fleet which he commanded, he was surprised at an extraordinary cloud issuing from Vesuvius; he immediately put to sea, and landed at the foot of the mountain, to ascertain the cause of the phenomenon; but the sulphureous exhalation from the burning lava overcame him, and he was suffocated, A. D. 79. The circumstances of his death are related by the Younger Pliny, in a letter to the historian Tacitus.

Of all the writings of Pliny, none remains but his Natural History; a work of wonderful erudition, and as extensive and varied as nature itself. Independently of his history of animals, of plants, and minerals, it comprehends the history of heaven and earth, of physic, commerce, navigation, the history of the mechanical and

liberal arts, the origin of customs; in short, of all the natural sciences, and all human discoveries. It is the most valuable repertory of the knowledge of antiquity, and justly deserves to be called the Encyclopædia of the Ancients.

The eloquence which Pliny has displayed in his work; the imagination which colours and animates his style, give it a distinguished place among the writers of the second century of Roman literature: but he does not exhibit either the purity or the admirable simplicity of the Augustan age. His principal character is vivacity and energy; but he carries his boldness sometimes too far: his thoughts exceed frequently the boundaries of truth; he sinks often into declamation, and becomes harsh and obscure in aiming at precision and force.

The best editions of this work are that of Hardouin, at Paris, in 1723, 3 vols. folio; and that of Brotier, 1779, 6: vols. 12mo. It has been translated into English by Philemon Holland.